Bachmann Denounces Gov’t Spending, Cites Debunked Health Care Myth

In her Tea Party response after the Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address tonight, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) offered a critique of the President and his policies, and said she believes “we are in the very early days of a history-making turn.”

She also threw in a debunked myth about the health care law for good measure.With the aid of a chart, Bachmann denounced what she called an “unprecedented explosion of government spending and debt, unlike anything we have seen in the history of our country.” She said the stimulus had “failed,” and called on Obama to repeal “ObamaCare.” She also blamed Obama for the nation’s 9.4 percent unemployment rate.

“Instead of a leaner, smarter government, we bought a bureaucracy that now tells us which light bulbs to buy, and which may put 16,500 IRS agents in charge of policing President Obama’s healthcare bill,” she said. The IRS agent claim has been widely debunked, and factcheck.org says it “stems from a partisan analysis based on guesswork and false assumptions, and compounded by outright misrepresentation.”

Bachmann offered Obama some policy suggestions: stop the EPA from “imposing a job-destroying cap-and-trade system”; support a Balanced Budget Amendment; increase American “energy production”; and overturn some of regulations put in place in the last two years.

Bachmann gave credit to Tea Party voters.

“Because of you, Congress is responding and we are just beginning to start to undo the damage that’s been done the last few years,” she said.

In her closing, she made reference to the famous picture Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima.

“These six young men raising the flag came to symbolize all of America coming together to beat back a totalitarian aggressor,” she said. “Our current debt crisis we face today is different, but we still need all of us to pull together. But we can do this.”

Here’s the full speech:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eric Lach is a reporter for TPM. From 2010 to 2011, he was a news writer in charge of the website?s front page. He has previously written for The Daily, NewYorker.com, GlobalPost and other publications. He can be reached at ericl@talkingpointsmemo.com